The GOTMFV Showhttp://www.eclectablog.com
Turning words into votesSun, 18 Nov 2018 17:38:59 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8LOLGOP & EclectablogyesLOLGOP & Eclectablogchrissavage123@sbcglobal.netchrissavage123@sbcglobal.net (LOLGOP & Eclectablog)Savage New Media LLC, Chris Savage, and Jason SattlerTurning words into votesThe GOTMFV Showhttp://www.eclectablog.com/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/GOTMFV_Show_Logo.jpghttp://www.eclectablog.com
eclectablog@gmail.comWhat if this were the last election in American history? Each week LOLGOP and Chris Savage of Eclectablog.com bring you the top minds, news, and tactics in electoral politics in order to turn words into votes and save our democracy. (Formerly &quot;The Sit and Spin Room with LOLGOP &amp; Eclectablog.)YesTV-PGAnn Arbor, MichiganWeeklyFrom resisting to insisting – With Leah Greenberg from the Indivisible Teamhttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/11/from-resisting-to-insisting-with-leah-greenberg-from-the-indivisible-team.html
Sun, 18 Nov 2018 17:25:39 +0000http://www.eclectablog.com/?p=68599http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/11/from-resisting-to-insisting-with-leah-greenberg-from-the-indivisible-team.html#respondhttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/11/from-resisting-to-insisting-with-leah-greenberg-from-the-indivisible-team.html/feed0REMINDER: Our Eclectablog/GOTMFV Show fundraiser is Friday, November 30th at The Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti. Please join us and support the blog and pod. Sponsorships are ENCOURAGED! All the details are HERE.
Osita Nwanevu at The New Yorker: Indivisible, an Early Anti-Trump Group, Plans for a Democratic Future
Benjy Sarlin at NBC News: Key 'resistance' group plots how newly elected reps can take on Trump — and House Democratic leaders
Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin, founders of the Indivisible Team: INTRODUCING: INDIVISIBLE ON OFFENSE
New Indivisible federal Guide: INDIVISIBLE ON OFFENSE
New Indivisible state Guide: INDIVISIBLE STATES
Leah Greenberg on Twitter: @LeahGreenb
The Indivisible Team on Twitter: @IndivisibleTeam
Alexi McCammond at Axios: The incumbents who lost in 2018
Ballotpedia: List of U.S. Congress incumbents who are not running for re-election in 2018
Tim Murphy at Mother Jones: Republican Candidates Have No Idea What ActBlue Is But they sure do hate it.
Progressives Everywhere with Jordan Zakarin has an ActBlue fundraising page for the special elections of John Barrow (Georgia Secretary of State), Mike Espy (Mississippi Senate), and the Virgina Special Elections HERE.Give us a five-star review at iTunes!
The GOTMFV Show Facebook page is HERE!
Music clips
Intro and transition music: You Dress Like an Asshole by Not The 1s
Progressives Everywhere intro/outro: They're Everywhere by Jim's Big Ego
Flint Water Crisis Update intro: Unclaimed by Mike Wagner/Total Strangers
Outro music: Complain (from the movie Bob Roberts) by David Robbins & Tim RobbinsREMINDER: Our Eclectablog/GOTMFV Show fundraiser is Friday, November 30th at The Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti. Please join us and support the blog and pod. Sponsorships are ENCOURAGED! All the details are HERE. -
REMINDER: Our Eclectablog/GOTMFV Show fundraiser is Friday, November 30th at The Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti. Please join us and support the blog and pod. Sponsorships are ENCOURAGED! All the details are HERE.

Progressives Everywhere with Jordan Zakarin has an ActBlue fundraising page for the special elections of John Barrow (Georgia Secretary of State), Mike Espy (Mississippi Senate), and the Virgina Special Elections HERE.Give us a five-star review at iTunes!

Music clips
Intro and transition music: You Dress Like an Asshole by Not The 1s
Progressives Everywhere intro/outro: They're EverywhereLOLGOP & Eclectablogyes49:36How to beat corporate PAC money – with special guest Sean McElwee from Data for Progresshttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/11/how-to-beat-corporate-pac-money-with-special-guest-sean-mcelwee-from-data-for-progress.html
Mon, 12 Nov 2018 11:15:09 +0000http://www.eclectablog.com/?p=68553http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/11/how-to-beat-corporate-pac-money-with-special-guest-sean-mcelwee-from-data-for-progress.html#respondhttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/11/how-to-beat-corporate-pac-money-with-special-guest-sean-mcelwee-from-data-for-progress.html/feed0[T]he three main factors of the election last week seem to be (1) Trump repulsing everyone but billionaires, temporarily embarrassed billionaires and white people who've never slept in a dorm, (2) historic turnout for a midterm fed by massive organizing efforts like the Women's March and Indivisible and (3) Democrats magnifying their reach by donating everywhere.
The Cook Report's Dave Wasserman tweeted, "[T]here’s a lot of evidence to suggest Dems’ massive $$ edge in battleground CDs ended up mostly offsetting their geographic disadvantage."
Dems may ultimately have been outspent when you total up big donations like the $88 million Sheldon Adelson gave the GOP. And while the 38,666,868 contributions made through ActBlue, up from 21,194,898 in the 2016 cycle, may not get anyone a Medal of Honor, like the one the Adelsons have bought Sheldon's wife Miriam, they may have made the difference in 2018.
Democratic consultant Jesse Ferguson called small donors Democrats' answer to the Koch brothers, but they could also be the answer to Citizens United, and eventually Shelby v. Holder.
Progressive giving has been relentless, targeted and early. It started with the effort to win Tom Price's old House seat with Jon Ossoff and that loss blossomed into dozens of similar efforts along with targeted efforts like Give Smart and Progressives Everywhere.
ActBlue made a lot of this possible with its sweet wallet that makes giving almost addictive, but that technology is easy to copy. What's not easy to duplicate is the spirit of the site which matches this progressive moment and the democratic opposition to Trump.
Democrats are used to financing much of this nation with our tax dollars. Now we can do the same with smart funding of not just candidates but get out the vote programs, think tanks and other campaigns fueling electoral reforms like we just saw here in Michigan.
(Read the rest HERE.)
Someone who has been doing his damndest to make sure change happens fast is Sean McElwee. He’s a contributor at The Nation, an Overton Window Mover, founder of abolishice.org and co-founder of & Chief Meme Officer at Data For Progress. We wanted to talk to him about what happens next.
Sean McElwee on Twitter: @SeanMcElwee
Date for Progress website: DataforProgress.org
Data for Progress on Twitter: @DataProgress
The Good -- Democrats didn’t leave campaigning to the professionals
Osita Nwanevu at The New Yorker: Indivisible, an Early Anti-Trump Group, Plans for a Democratic Future
Michelle Goldberg at The New York Times: The Resistance Strikes Back
Derek Watkins, K.K. Rebecca Lai, Larry Buchanan, and Karen Yourish at The New York Times: Sizing Up the2018 Blue Wave
The Bad -- Voter suppression, part eleventy billion
https://twitter.com/AriBerman/status/1061635229465657350
The Shrugly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -- House Democrats should focus on .... EVERYTHING!
Ronald Klain at The Washington Post: The first five things the Democrats should do with their House majority
Nick Hanauer at The Hill: Dear Democrats: Don’t be corporate stooges too
Give us a five-star review at iTunes!
The GOTMFV Show Facebook page is HERE!
Music clips
Intro and transition music: You Dress Like an Asshole by Not The 1s
Progressives Everywhere intro/outro: They're Everywhere by Jim's Big Ego
Flint Water Crisis Update intro: Unclaimed by Mike Wagner/Total Strangers
Outro music: Complain (from the movie Bob Roberts) by David Robbins & Tim Robbins[T]he three main factors of the election last week seem to be (1) Trump repulsing everyone but billionaires, temporarily embarrassed billionaires and white people who've never slept in a dorm, (2) historic turnout for a midterm fed by massive organizi...
[T]he three main factors of the election last week seem to be (1) Trump repulsing everyone but billionaires, temporarily embarrassed billionaires and white people who've never slept in a dorm, (2) historic turnout for a midterm fed by massive organizing efforts like the Women's March and Indivisible and (3) Democrats magnifying their reach by donating everywhere.

Progressive giving has been relentless, targeted and early. It started with the effort to win Tom Price's old House seat with Jon Ossoff and that loss blossomed into dozens of similar efforts along with targeted efforts like Give Smart and Progressives Everywhere.

ActBlue made a lot of this possible with its sweet wallet that makes giving almost addictive, but that technology is easy to copy. What's not easy to duplicate is the spirit of the site which matches this progressive moment and the democratic opposition to Trump.

Democrats are used to financing much of this nation with our tax dollars. Now we can do the same with smart funding of not just candidates but get out the vote programs, think tanks and other campaigns fueling electoral reforms like we just saw here in Michigan.

Someone who has been doing his damndest to make sure change happens fast is Sean McElwee. He’s a contributor at The Nation, an Overton Window Mover, founder of abolishice.org and co-founder of & Chief Meme Officer at Data For Progress. We wanted to talk to him about what happens next.

]]>LOLGOP & Eclectablogyes1:10:40Vote the WHOLE ballot; the whole ballot MATTERS! with special guest Andy Slavitthttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/11/vote-the-whole-ballot-the-whole-ballot-matters-with-special-guest-andy-slavitt.html
Mon, 05 Nov 2018 14:13:21 +0000http://www.eclectablog.com/?p=68516http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/11/vote-the-whole-ballot-the-whole-ballot-matters-with-special-guest-andy-slavitt.html#respondhttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/11/vote-the-whole-ballot-the-whole-ballot-matters-with-special-guest-andy-slavitt.html/feed0One thing Jesus was clear about was how he felt about starving migrants—feed them. He was—as far as this fellow Jew can tell—far less clear about how he felt about the baking of gay wedding cakes. Yet I see no conservative Christians making a religious stand for migrants.
So, let's stop pretending these concerns are religious. It’s all about race and distraction. But why?
This is a health care election, which is why Republicans want to talk about starving kids 1,000 miles from the Rio Grande.
Right now, there’s a Trump-backed case filed by 20 Republicans governors and attorneys general that is designed to blow up the Affordable Care Act’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions. The conservative judge in the case seems to be holding the decision, which could gut the ACA, until after the election. Not one Republican has called for this case to be dropped.
When Republicans are talking about health care, which is what Democrats are mostly talking about everywhere, they’re losing.
Ask congressman Tom MacArthur and Fred Upton, two Republicans in safely gerrymandered districts who negotiated the demise of the protections of preexisting conditions in the Trumpcare bill. Both are now in the fight of their political lives.
But what’s the press fixated on? Trump’s racist squirrel.
Media Matters found "The New York Times and The Washington Post have run a total of 115 news stories in their print editions mentioning the caravan over the last three weeks. Each paper has run at least one such story on its front page on nine of the last 10 days."
Trump’s malicious stunt of sending troops to the border to face down starving kids who may never get there could end up costing us $200 million but it could also cost 20 million Americans their health insurance if this racist ploy is enough to save the seats of guys like MacArthur and Upton and Republicans end up keeping the House.
We wanted to talk to the man who has spent the last four years saving Obamacare over and over again about how and why we have to do it again. Andy Slavitt ran the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid under President Obama and since then he’s only stronger every time Republicans try to strike down the ACA.
Andy Slavitt on Twitter: @ASlavitt
United States of Care on Twitter: @USofCare
United States of Care website: UnitedStatesofCare.org
The Good -- The Early Vote
Jacqueline Alemany at The Washington Post: Will there be a youth wave? Early voting points to yes
https://twitter.com/tbonier/status/1059085826607456257
The Bad -- The voters who this election depends most on are being suppressed
Terry Gross on Fresh Air: Republican Voter Suppression Efforts Are Targeting Minorities, Journalist Says
Ari Berman at Mother Jones: Kris Kobach’s Kansas Voter ID Law Could Make Him Governor in a Tight Race
Mike Grunwald at Politico: Democrats Say Republicans Are Stealing the Midterms. Are They Right?
The Shrugly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -- The economy is great which is great for Republicans. But... Trump
Dan Balz and Scott Clement at The Washington Post: Democrats lead in House preferences, but positive views of the economy and concern about border security may buoy Republicans, poll finds
James Pethokoukis at The Week: Why the Trump boomlet may soon fade
Flint Water Crisis update
Joel Feick at NBC 25NEWS: New report says cost of Flint water crisis legal fees exceed $30 mil. So far.
Ron Fonger at MLive: Final Flint water cases could be ready to start -- almost 2 years after charges
The show notes for Episode 20 of The GOTMFV Show are at http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/11/vote-the-whole-ballot-the-whole-ballot-matters-with-special-guest-andy-slavitt.html
Give us a five-star review at iTunes!
The GOTMFV Show Facebook page is HERE!
Music clips
Intro and transition music: You Dress Like an Asshole by Not The 1s
Progressives Everywhere intro/outro: They're Everywhere by Jim's Big Ego
One thing Jesus was clear about was how he felt about starving migrants—feed them. He was—as far as this fellow Jew can tell—far less clear about how he felt about the baking of gay wedding cakes. Yet I see no conservative Christians making a religious...
So, let's stop pretending these concerns are religious. It’s all about race and distraction. But why?

This is a health care election, which is why Republicans want to talk about starving kids 1,000 miles from the Rio Grande.

When Republicans are talking about health care, which is what Democrats are mostly talking about everywhere, they’re losing.

Ask congressman Tom MacArthur and Fred Upton, two Republicans in safely gerrymandered districts who negotiated the demise of the protections of preexisting conditions in the Trumpcare bill. Both are now in the fight of their political lives.

But what’s the press fixated on? Trump’s racist squirrel.

Media Matters found "The New York Times and The Washington Post have run a total of 115 news stories in their print editions mentioning the caravan over the last three weeks. Each paper has run at least one such story on its front page on nine of the last 10 days."

Trump’s malicious stunt of sending troops to the border to face down starving kids who may never get there could end up costing us $200 million but it could also cost 20 million Americans their health insurance if this racist ploy is enough to save the seats of guys like MacArthur and Upton and Republicans end up keeping the House.

We wanted to talk to the man who has spent the last four years saving Obamacare over and over again about how and why we have to do it again. Andy Slavitt ran the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid under President Obama and since then he’s only stronger every time Republicans try to strike down the ACA.

Ari Berman at Mother Jones: yes1:10:22Do something EVERY day – with special guest Gretchen Whitmer, candidate for Michigan governorhttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/do-something-every-day-with-special-guest-gretchen-whitmer-candidate-for-michigan-governor.html
Mon, 29 Oct 2018 10:53:58 +0000http://www.eclectablog.com/?p=68425http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/do-something-every-day-with-special-guest-gretchen-whitmer-candidate-for-michigan-governor.html#respondhttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/do-something-every-day-with-special-guest-gretchen-whitmer-candidate-for-michigan-governor.html/feed0Powerful women. Legal weed. Fair electoral maps. Automatic Registration. Easy voting. If you live in Michigan, you have a chance to vote for almost everything Republicans despise on November 6.
You’ve probably heard that Trump’s fluke success across the Big Ten states of Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania doesn’t seem fated to be repeated by Republicans. But we have to remember that it was largely overblown anyway, especially in Michigan.
“Donald Trump won Michigan in 2016, though he drew only slightly more votes than Romney — 2.28 million,” conservative Nolan Finley notes. “The difference was the lackluster showing of Hillary Clinton, who won fewer Michigan votes (2.26 million) than any Democratic presidential candidate since Al Gore in 2000.”
Studies have shown Trump’s narrow win in Wisconsin wouldn’t have been possible without the state’s masterful voter suppression. Of course, that leads Pennsylvania, where Republicans haven’t even been able to produce a decent candidate for governor or Senator.
Everything that went wrong in 2016 hasn’t been fixed but in Michigan we’re fighting back with a ticket that’s almost entirely women, except for our Lt. Gov. candidate Garlin Gilchrist from MoveOn.org and the great Sam Bagenstos, who’ve you’ve heard on the show. Sam is the kind of guy who could be on the Supreme Court today if Hillary Clinton had gotten just a few more votes in each precinct in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio.
Gretchen Whitmer leads that ticket the same way she led the fight to win Medicaid Expansion in this state. Because of her, some 700,000 Michiganders have gained coverage and her opponent who sued to try to kill the Affordable Care Act a record 9 times is pulling a turn fit for pro wrestling and pretending he suddenly cares about health care.
We talk a lot about whoever owns the language and framing of a debate is winning and Whitmer is doing just that. We wanted to talk to her about what she’s learned from running for governor, what worries her most, and how she deals with polls that often make no sense.
Intro sound clip of Gretchen Whitmer prior to her final debate with Bill Schuette courtesy of the inimitable Graham Davis::
Gretchen Whitmer on Twitter: @GretchenWhitmer
Gretchen Whitmer's campaign website: GretchenWhitmer.com
Donate to the Whitmer campaign HERE.
The Good -- In 2018, this isn't your parents' GOTV
James Hohmann at The Washington Post: To win the Midwest, labor-backed coalition pursues minorities who haven’t voted before in midterms
LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright at The New York Times: How to Turn a Person Into a Voter
The Bad -- The U.S. Senate
Jennifer Bendery at The Huffington Post: Senate’s Out? Nobody’s Around? Perfect Time To Advance Trump’s Court Picks, Says GOP.
Ron Brownstein at CNN Politics: Small states are getting a much bigger say in who gets on Supreme Court
The Shrugly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -- Hate and fear and caravans, oh my : (
Progressives Everywhere's Candidates of the Week (via @JordanZakarin): Congressional candidate Janet Garrett (OH-14).
Donate to Janet Garrett at Progressives Everywhere HERE.
The show notes for Episode 19 of The GOTMFV Show are at http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/do-something-every-day-with-special-guest-gretchen-whitmer-candidate-for-michigan-governor.html
Give us a five-star review at iTunes!
The GOTMFV Show Facebook page is HERE!
Music clips
Intro and transition music: You Dress Like an Asshole by Not The 1s
Progressives Everywhere intro/outro: They're Everywhere by Jim's Big Ego
Flint Water Crisis Update intro: Unclaimed by Mike Wagner/Total Strangers
Outro music: Complain (from the movie Bob Roberts) by David Robbins & Tim RobbinsPowerful women. Legal weed. Fair electoral maps. Automatic Registration. Easy voting. If you live in Michigan, you have a chance to vote for almost everything Republicans despise on November 6. - You’ve probably heard that Trump’s fluke success across...
You’ve probably heard that Trump’s fluke success across the Big Ten states of Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania doesn’t seem fated to be repeated by Republicans. But we have to remember that it was largely overblown anyway, especially in Michigan.

“Donald Trump won Michigan in 2016, though he drew only slightly more votes than Romney — 2.28 million,” conservative Nolan Finley notes. “The difference was the lackluster showing of Hillary Clinton, who won fewer Michigan votes (2.26 million) than any Democratic presidential candidate since Al Gore in 2000.”

Studies have shown Trump’s narrow win in Wisconsin wouldn’t have been possible without the state’s masterful voter suppression. Of course, that leads Pennsylvania, where Republicans haven’t even been able to produce a decent candidate for governor or Senator.

Everything that went wrong in 2016 hasn’t been fixed but in Michigan we’re fighting back with a ticket that’s almost entirely women, except for our Lt. Gov. candidate Garlin Gilchrist from MoveOn.org and the great Sam Bagenstos, who’ve you’ve heard on the show. Sam is the kind of guy who could be on the Supreme Court today if Hillary Clinton had gotten just a few more votes in each precinct in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio.

Gretchen Whitmer leads that ticket the same way she led the fight to win Medicaid Expansion in this state. Because of her, some 700,000 Michiganders have gained coverage and her opponent who sued to try to kill the Affordable Care Act a record 9 times is pulling a turn fit for pro wrestling and pretending he suddenly cares about health care.

We talk a lot about whoever owns the language and framing of a debate is winning and Whitmer is doing just that. We wanted to talk to her about what she’s learned from running for governor, what worries her most, and how she deals with polls that often make no sense.

Intro sound clip of Gretchen Whitmer prior to her final debate with Bill Schuette courtesy of the inimitable Graham Davis::

The Shrugly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -- Hate and fear and caravans,...]]>LOLGOP & Eclectablogyes1:05:07Beyond Thunderdome Politics with special guest Greg Sargent from The Washington Posthttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/beyond-thunderdome-politics-with-special-guest-greg-sargent-from-the-washington-post.html
Mon, 22 Oct 2018 10:43:18 +0000http://www.eclectablog.com/?p=68341http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/beyond-thunderdome-politics-with-special-guest-greg-sargent-from-the-washington-post.html#respondhttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/beyond-thunderdome-politics-with-special-guest-greg-sargent-from-the-washington-post.html/feed0If voting didn’t matter, Republicans wouldn’t mind if your vote counted.
The safest bet in the world is that Democrats will win the popular vote for the House on November 6 the way they have won the popular vote in the last 6 out of 7 presidential elections. But they could still easily lose the House majority.
Republicans starting off with a couple million votes banked to their advantage because of gerrymandering and the sick design of the Senate is just one example of the asymmetric playing field that defines modern politics.
Republicans have figured out how to insulate themselves from the press, the electorate, and even the truth. And though Donald Trump has exploited every advantage that conservatives have spent crafting, he’s invented almost none of them — unless you consider manufacturing a “racist conspiracy theory of the day” and repeating debunked lies to be innovations.
In his new book An Uncivil War - Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics, Greg Sargent describes the current environment as “Thunderdome Politics” and he does a masterful job of not only explaining how we got into the mess but how we might be able to get out.
We wanted to talk to him about what makes Trump unique, why Trump’s whining may actually be a good sign and how Democrats can fight back without becoming the monsters we oppose.
Greg Sargent on Twitter: ThePlumLineGS.
The Plum Line at The Washington Post is HERE.
Purchase An Uncivil War - Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics HERE.
Our new project, A Fresh Michigan, can be found by clicking the logo:
The Good -- McConnell Set the Stakes
The Kaiser Family Foundation: KFF Election Tracking Poll: Health Care in the 2018 Midterms
Dan Mangan at CNBC: The GOP's health-care bill is a polling disaster, with voters much more likely to punish Senators who support it
The Bad -- The Trump administration wants to delete transgender people from existence
Neal Broverman at The Advocate: Trump Admin. Preparing to Deny Trans People Exist, Erase Protections
https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1054059683110182917
The Shrugly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -- Polls. Again.
Todd Spangler at The Detroit Free Press: Races for Bishop, Trott seats too close to call, say new polls
https://twitter.com/ChadLivengood/status/1053264061796925440
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1054036665528913921
The show notes for Episode 18 of The GOTMFV Show are at http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/beyond-thunderdome-politics-with-special-guest-greg-sargent-from-the-washington-post.html
Give us a five-star review at iTunes!
The GOTMFV Show Facebook page is HERE!
Music clips
Intro and transition music: You Dress Like an Asshole by Not The 1s
Progressives Everywhere intro/outro: They're Everywhere by Jim's Big Ego
Flint Water Crisis Update intro: Unclaimed by Mike Wagner/Total Strangers
Outro music: Complain (from the movie Bob Roberts) by David Robbins & Tim RobbinsIf voting didn’t matter, Republicans wouldn’t mind if your vote counted. - The safest bet in the world is that Democrats will win the popular vote for the House on November 6 the way they have won the popular vote in the last 6 out of 7 presidential e...
The safest bet in the world is that Democrats will win the popular vote for the House on November 6 the way they have won the popular vote in the last 6 out of 7 presidential elections. But they could still easily lose the House majority.

Republicans starting off with a couple million votes banked to their advantage because of gerrymandering and the sick design of the Senate is just one example of the asymmetric playing field that defines modern politics.

Republicans have figured out how to insulate themselves from the press, the electorate, and even the truth. And though Donald Trump has exploited every advantage that conservatives have spent crafting, he’s invented almost none of them — unless you consider manufacturing a “racist conspiracy theory of the day” and repeating debunked lies to be innovations.

The show notes for Episode 18 of The GOTMFV Show are at yes1:00:38The big, beautiful gender gap – with special guest Laura Olinhttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/the-big-beautiful-gender-gap-with-special-guest-laura-olin.html
Mon, 15 Oct 2018 10:57:14 +0000http://www.eclectablog.com/?p=68270http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/the-big-beautiful-gender-gap-with-special-guest-laura-olin.html#respondhttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/the-big-beautiful-gender-gap-with-special-guest-laura-olin.html/feed0Donald Trump has built a big, beautiful gender gap. And the question is, “Who is going to pay for it?”
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that registered voters prefer House Democrats to Republicans by 11 percentage points while likely voters prefer Democratic House candidates by 13 points. This divide is the result of an enthusiasm among Democrats, younger adults, and non-whites unlike anything we’ve seen since 2008 and a massive gender gap.
Men prefer Republicans by 2 percentage points while WOMEN back Democrats by 22 percentage points. That’s a yawning 24-point gender gap.
This is why Republicans have been talking about all the reasons it’s terrifying to be a man, including higher wages and a tiny chance you might not get away with sexual assault. Republicans need to turn out men and turn off women from voting. And this Republican Party is expert at turning off women.
Right now, 77 percent of Americans say they will vote in November. That’s up from 65 percent in 2014 and turnout will decide this election. The CBS Battleground Tracker finds that if new midterm voters stay home and the electorate looks like recent midterms, Republicans will win 218 seats and keep their majority by one seat.
Enthusiasm appears to be on Democrats’ side and candidates seem to have enough money to compete against Republicans even with billionaires tithing a small fraction of their “tax cuts for the rich” to the GOP. But there are always reasons to be worried. The right seems to be dominating Facebook in the same way they did in 2016, spending way more on digital advertising than Democrats and, though even Fox News has backed off covering Trump’s rallies, they remain a powerful organizational tool that doesn’t seem to have a counter on the right.
Laura Olin was the voice of President Obama’s digital communications and she’s raised millions of dollars for non-profits. She was also the creator of the amazing Everything Changes newsletter and is currently running the Votes for Women project. We wanted to talk to her about whether Democrats have learned anything from 2016 and how to turn women’s anger into votes.
Laura Olin on Twitter: @LauraOlin
Laura Olin on the web: LauraOlin.com
Votes for Women on Twitter: @WeVoteForWomen
https://twitter.com/lauraolin/status/1039268094517108742
Votes for Women online: VotesForWomen.co
Sign up for the Votes For Women newsletter HERE.
The Good -- Planned Parenthood isn’t rolling over and playing dead – they have a post-Roe plan
David Crary at The Washington Post: Planned Parenthood launches plan to protect abortion access
Planned Parenthood's 3-Part Plan: Care For All: A 3-Part Plan to Protect and Expand Access to Abortion in the United States
The Bad -- Voter suppression in Georgia and other places continues to ramp up
Associated Press: 'Suppression': Critics charge Georgia GOP gov candidate purging voters before election
Amy Gardner at The Washington Post: GOP claims of voter fraud threat fuel worries about ballot access in November
The Shrugly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -- The rich are killing us—with the help of the GOP
Eric Levitz at New York Magazine - The Intelligencer: The GOP Gutted the IRS — and the Rich Made Out Like Bandits
David Cooper and Teresa Kroeger at the Economic Policy Institute: Employers steal billions from workers’ paychecks each year
Luke Darby at GQ: Billionaires Are the Leading Cause of Climate Change
Flint Water Crisis update
The Detroit News: Flint residents seek to reinstate Snyder in water suit
Ron Fonger a MLive: DHHS staffer says she was told to lie about Flint blood lead leve
The Detroit News: Doc charged in Legionnaires’ death gets accolade
Ron Fonger at MLive: Former Flint EM heads to court, but law that gave him power remains unchanged
Ron Fonger at MLive: Former Flint EM, water prosecutor confirm they're working on a plea deal
The show notes for Episode 17 of The GOTMFV Show are at http://www.Donald Trump has built a big, beautiful gender gap. And the question is, “Who is going to pay for it?” - A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that registered voters prefer House Democrats to Republicans by 11 percentage points while likely voters...A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that registered voters prefer House Democrats to Republicans by 11 percentage points while likely voters prefer Democratic House candidates by 13 points. This divide is the result of an enthusiasm among Democrats, younger adults, and non-whites unlike anything we’ve seen since 2008 and a massive gender gap.

This is why Republicans have been talking about all the reasons it’s terrifying to be a man, including higher wages and a tiny chance you might not get away with sexual assault. Republicans need to turn out men and turn off women from voting. And this Republican Party is expert at turning off women.

Enthusiasm appears to be on Democrats’ side and candidates seem to have enough money to compete against Republicans even with billionaires tithing a small fraction of their “tax cuts for the rich” to the GOP. But there are always reasons to be worried. The right seems to be dominating Facebook in the same way they did in 2016, spending way more on digital advertising than Democrats and, though even Fox News has backed off covering Trump’s rallies, they remain a powerful organizational tool that doesn’t seem to have a counter on the right.

Laura Olin was the voice of President Obama’s digital communications and she’s raised millions of dollars for non-profits. She was also the creator of the amazing Everything Changes newsletter and is currently running the Votes for Women project. We wanted to talk to her about whether Democrats have learned anything from 2016 and how to turn women’s anger into votes.

The Good -- Planned Parenthood isn’t rolling over and playing dead – they have a post-Roe plan

David Crary at The Washington Post: yes56:372018: The best year for voting rights since 1965??? with special guest Ari Bermanhttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/2018-the-best-year-for-voting-rights-since-1965-with-special-guest-ari-berman.html
Wed, 10 Oct 2018 11:07:55 +0000http://www.eclectablog.com/?p=68211http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/2018-the-best-year-for-voting-rights-since-1965-with-special-guest-ari-berman.html#respondhttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/2018-the-best-year-for-voting-rights-since-1965-with-special-guest-ari-berman.html/feed0If everybody voted, Republicans would lose almost everywhere. And no one knows this better than Republicans.
As we recorded this podcast -- on Tuesday, October 9th, 2018 -- it was the voting registration deadline in Michigan and 14 other states. And it could be the last voting registration deadline in this state ever if voters pass Proposal 3/Promote the Vote, which includes automatic voter registration. That is, if Republicans don’t figure out a way to get the Supreme Court to gut it.
When it comes to democracy, this truly is the worst and less worse times.
It’s the worst for so many reasons. Here are a few. Donald Trump is preparing to gut the only investigation into the conspiracy behind the attack on our 2016 elections, right as indictments are about to hit his family. A Supreme Court that represents a smaller and smaller minority of Americans, but way too many sexual predators, has legalized unnecessary voter purges and just backed a voter ID law in North Dakota that targets Native Americans. And two of the world’s worst voter suppressors of the century – Kris Kobach and Brian Kemp – are Republican candidates for governor.
It’s slightly less worse because we’re also seeing a focus on voting rights unlike anything Democrats have mustered since they passed the Motor Voter law in the early 90s. A third of Americans live in a jurisdiction that has either passed or implemented AVR. Michiganders and Nevadans will soon join that list if ballot measures pass on November 6. And perhaps the most exciting re-enfranchisement of voters in half a century could be happening in Florida.
So we had to talk to Ari Berman, the man who has spent much of this decade covering the war on voting, which became a war on democracy and is now being resisted by a war FOR voting. He’s a senior reporter at Mother Jones and the author of Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America. He’s also just been named a member of the Frederick Douglass 200, 200 Americans whose modern-day work best embodies Douglass's enduring legacy of social change. Even more importantly, he’s the most frequent guest of this podcast.
Ari Berman on Twitter: @AriBerman
Ari Berman at Mother Jones: Federal Judge Blasts Trump Administration’s “Frivolous” Attempt to Thwart Census Lawsuit
Ari Berman at Mother Jones: Federal Judge Blasts Trump Administration’s “Frivolous” Attempt to Thwart Census Lawsuit
Ari Berman at Mother Jones: New Documents Undercut Commerce Secretary’s Claims About Origins of Census Citizenship Question
The Good -- Ann Arbor's and Huffington Post’s Jonathan Cohn is on the “GOP is lying to cancer patients” beat, which is the biggest uncovered story of this campaign
Jonathan Cohn at Huffington Post: Republicans Are Using Their Families To Defend Their Records On Health Care
Chris Savage at Eclectablog: Republican Mike Bishop doesn’t want you to know his stances on guns & unions, quietly scrubs them from his website
The Bad -- We’re all going to die because of climate change and the GOP is in favor of this
Brandon Miller and Jay Croft at CNN: Planet has only until 2030 to stem catastrophic climate change, experts warn
Yes, climate change CAN cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
The Shrugly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -- There is a Kavanaugh Effect and it seems to have bolstered Republicans in red states and screwed them everywhere else
Jason Sattler at USA Today: Don't reward Republicans for Brett Kavanaugh and the politics of personal annihilation
The show notes for Episode 16 of The GOTMFV Show are at http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/2018-the-best-year-for-voting-rights-since-1965-with-special-guest-ari-berman.html
Give us a five-star review at iTunes!
The GOTMFV Show Facebook page is HERE!
Music clips
Intro and transition music: You Dress Like an Asshole by Not The 1s
Progressives Everywhere intro/outro: They're Everywhere by Jim's Big Ego
If everybody voted, Republicans would lose almost everywhere. And no one knows this better than Republicans. - As we recorded this podcast -- on Tuesday, October 9th, 2018 -- it was the voting registration deadline in Michigan and 14 other states.
As we recorded this podcast -- on Tuesday, October 9th, 2018 -- it was the voting registration deadline in Michigan and 14 other states. And it could be the last voting registration deadline in this state ever if voters pass Proposal 3/Promote the Vote, which includes automatic voter registration. That is, if Republicans don’t figure out a way to get the Supreme Court to gut it.

When it comes to democracy, this truly is the worst and less worse times.

It’s the worst for so many reasons. Here are a few. Donald Trump is preparing to gut the only investigation into the conspiracy behind the attack on our 2016 elections, right as indictments are about to hit his family. A Supreme Court that represents a smaller and smaller minority of Americans, but way too many sexual predators, has legalized unnecessary voter purges and just backed a voter ID law in North Dakota that targets Native Americans. And two of the world’s worst voter suppressors of the century – Kris Kobach and Brian Kemp – are Republican candidates for governor.

It’s slightly less worse because we’re also seeing a focus on voting rights unlike anything Democrats have mustered since they passed the Motor Voter law in the early 90s. A third of Americans live in a jurisdiction that has either passed or implemented AVR. Michiganders and Nevadans will soon join that list if ballot measures pass on November 6. And perhaps the most exciting re-enfranchisement of voters in half a century could be happening in Florida.

The Good -- Ann Arbor's and Huffington Post’s Jonathan Cohn is on the “GOP is lying to cancer patients” beat, which is the biggest uncovered story of this campaign

Jonathan Cohn at Huffington Post: yes54:34“Unhinged and unseemly”: The sad case of Brett Kavanaugh – with special guest Ryan Goodmanhttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/unhinged-and-unseemly-the-sad-case-of-brett-kavanaugh-with-special-guest-ryan-goodman.html
Mon, 01 Oct 2018 11:10:53 +0000http://www.eclectablog.com/?p=68181http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/unhinged-and-unseemly-the-sad-case-of-brett-kavanaugh-with-special-guest-ryan-goodman.html#respondhttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/unhinged-and-unseemly-the-sad-case-of-brett-kavanaugh-with-special-guest-ryan-goodman.html/feed0Brett Kavanaugh is pissed. He’s pissed because he thought he’d be on the Supreme Court now—and to be honest, so did I—he’s pissed because accusations of sexual abuse have come back to haunt him. And most of all, he’s pissed because these accusations are being taken seriously.
But how seriously? A small group of Senators who either love attention or are just looking for an excuse to vote for Kavanaugh have gotten the White House to approve a reopening of Brett Kavanaugh’s background check.
But what the hell does that mean?
Is this a real investigation or just a sample of what will happen with the Mueller probe after Rod Rosenstein is gone and the White House is calling the shots?
And speaking of that, what’s happening with Rod Rosenstein? Is he about to fired and what will it mean if he is?
We, like you, have way more questions and opinions than we have answers. That’s why we wanted to talk to someone who actually knows something.
Ryan Goodman is a Chaired Professor at NYU Law. He was a Special Counsel at the Dept of Defense (2015-16) and a founding co-editor-in-chief of Just Security. He knows stuff. Listen.
Ryan Goodman on Twitter: @RGoodLaw
Just Security on Twitter: @Just_Security
Just Security website: JustSecurity.org
Ryan Goodman's Testimony from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Hearing on Election Interference can be found HERE.
Natasha Bertrand at The Atlantic: A Supreme Court Case Could Liberate Trump to Pardon His Associates
Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns at The New York Times: Kavanaugh Could Help G.O.P. in Senate Midterms. But Not in House Races.
The Good -- Cracks are appearing in the Republican edifice
Melissa Nann Burke at The Detroit News: Super PAC aligned with GOP leaders axes funding for Bishop
Emily Lawler at MLive: Some Republicans uniting behind Democrat Gretchen Whitmer for governor
The Collegian's endorsement of Gretchen Whitmer is HERE.
Ashraf Khalil at The Washington Post: Jesuits, legal institutions back away from Kavanaugh vote
The Bad -- The inhumanity of the Trump administration
Caitlin Dickerson at The New York Times: Migrant Children Moved Under Cover of Darkness to a Texas Tent City
Melissa Jeltsen at The Huffington Post: Violence Against Women Act Is About To Expire
Anna Fifeld at The Washington Post: North Korea’s prisons are as bad as Nazi camps, says judge who survived Auschwitz
LOLGOP at Eclectablog: The clearest example of how Donald Trump could inspire ‘radical evil’
The Shrugly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -- Polls! Huh! What are the good for?
Kathleen Gray at The Detroit Free Press: Poll: Michigan backs legalizing recreational marijuana, easier voting
Real-time polling by The New York Times: Polling in Real Time: The 2018 Midterm Elections
Progressives Everywhere's Candidate of the Week (via @JordanZakarin): Julie Oliver, candidate for Texas 25th Congressional district.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZcpwknUo8
Jordan Zakarin at Progressives Everywhere: Julie Oliver, in TX-25, is running one of the most inspiring campaigns of 2018
Support Julie Oliver at Progressive Everywhere HERE.
The show notes for Episode 15 of The GOTMFV Show are at http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/010/unhinged-and-unseemly-the-sad-case-of-brett-kavanaugh-with-special-guest-ryan-goodman.html
Give us a five-star review at iTunes!
The GOTMFV Show Facebook page is HERE!
Music clips
Intro and transition music: You Dress Like an Asshole by Not The 1s
Progressives Everywhere intro/outro: They're Everywhere by Jim's Big Ego
Flint Water Crisis Update intro: Unclaimed by Mike Wagner/Total Strangers
Outro music: Complain (from the movie Bob Roberts) by David Robbins & Tim RobbinsBrett Kavanaugh is pissed. He’s pissed because he thought he’d be on the Supreme Court now—and to be honest, so did I—he’s pissed because accusations of sexual abuse have come back to haunt him. And most of all,
But how seriously? A small group of Senators who either love attention or are just looking for an excuse to vote for Kavanaugh have gotten the White House to approve a reopening of Brett Kavanaugh’s background check.

But what the hell does that mean?

Is this a real investigation or just a sample of what will happen with the Mueller probe after Rod Rosenstein is gone and the White House is calling the shots?

And speaking of that, what’s happening with Rod Rosenstein? Is he about to fired and what will it mean if he is?

We, like you, have way more questions and opinions than we have answers. That’s why we wanted to talk to someone who actually knows something.

Ryan Goodman is a Chaired Professor at NYU Law. He was a Special Counsel at the Dept of Defense (2015-16) and a founding co-editor-in-chief of Just Security. He knows stuff. Listen.

Melissa Jeltsen at The Huffington Post: yes1:00:47Martin Luther King, Jr. never gave an “I Have a Complaint” speech – with special guest messaging specialist Anat Shenker-Osoriohttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/09/martin-luther-king-jr-never-gave-an-i-have-a-complaint-speech-with-special-guest-messaging-specialist-anat-shenker-osorio.html
Tue, 25 Sep 2018 11:23:04 +0000http://www.eclectablog.com/?p=68136http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/09/martin-luther-king-jr-never-gave-an-i-have-a-complaint-speech-with-special-guest-messaging-specialist-anat-shenker-osorio.html#respondhttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/09/martin-luther-king-jr-never-gave-an-i-have-a-complaint-speech-with-special-guest-messaging-specialist-anat-shenker-osorio.html/feed0Old white dudes are scared by minorities and turned on by blondes so much that the right even started a news channel that’s always doing one or the another
Or to put it another way, Republicans require dog-whistling to win. That’s the finding of research conducted by our guest Anat Shenker-Osorio along with Prof. Ian Haney López with help of Demos Action.
We’ve told you before how focus groups, studies in four states and an online survey have all confirmed something that Shenker-Osorio and Haney López have been arguing for a long time: To beat right wing messaging, you need a message that combines race AND class.
Only by combining the two can you expose how racism is scam—a strategy designed to divide us so Sheldon Adelson can get billions in tax cuts and trillions for a war in Iran for just a few hundred million in campaign donations. But Adelson, like Donald Trump, didn’t invent anything. Richard Nixon pioneered the Southern Strategy which found its passion in fighting to keep Christian schools segregated in the 70s and its mission in denying women control of their bodies.
In their 1991 book, Chain Reaction, Thomas and Mary Edsall explained that “Just as race was used, between 1880 and 1964, by the planter-textile-banking elite of the South to rupture class solidarity at the bottom of the income ladder, and to maintain control of the region’s economic and political systems, race as a national issue over the past twenty-five years has broken the Democratic New Deal ‘bottom-up’ coalition — a coalition dependent on substantial support from all voters, white and black, at or below the median income.”
Demographics won’t save us. By 2040, 70% of Americans will live in 15 states. That means that 30% of Americans will elect 70% of our senators. Figuring out how to deal with the way Republicans have used race as a battering ram isn’t just a trivial fixation for the left—it’s essential if there’s any hope of building sustainable progressive majorities as the conservatives maximize the huge advantages for slaveowners built into the Constitution.
Understanding dog whistling may have helped us avoid Trump, but now that Trump has shown how powerful it can be, we have to confront it strategically for progressives to win. And that’s what Anat Shenker-Osorio does as well as anyone. She’s the founder of ASO Communications and the author of Don't Buy It: The Trouble With Talking Nonsense About the Economy.
Anat Shenker-Osorio on Twitter: @anatosaurus
Anat Shenker-Osorio's website: ASOcommunications.com
Anat Shenker-Osorios on Communicating Race-Class:
https://vimeo.com/284705635
Prof. Ian Haney-Lopez on dog whistle politics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibFwUNDZX4
The Good -- The activists are activated
The Brennan Center for Justice: Voting Rights Restoration Efforts in Florida
Steven Lemongello at the Orlando Sentinel: Poll: Felon voting rights amendment gets huge support
The Bad -- WTF Knows???
Jeffrey Toobin at The New Yorker: With Rod Rosenstein Possibly on His Way Out at the Justice Department, Who Will Protect Robert Mueller’s Investigation?
The Shrugly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -- Republicans are lying to cancer patients, pretending they are bipartisan compromisers on healthcare reform
Tim Walberg lauds bipartisanship and Barack Obama:
https://www.eclectablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/HOUSE_MI07_WALBERG_BIPARTISAN_SOLUTIONS.mp4
Amanda Michelle Gomez at ThinkProgress: These Republicans are running ads about their work on the opioid crisis. Here’s what they left out.
Cearron Bagenda at WBAY: Race for the next Wisconsin 8th Congressional District congressman
Paul Blest at Splinter: Missouri GOP Senate Candidate Winds Up Condemning His Own Stance on Healthcare
https://twitter.com/hawleymo/status/1044323880389791745?s=21
Progressives Everywhere's Candidates of the Week (via @JordanZakarin): Maine candidates Janet Mills (ME-GOV) and state senate candidates Erin Herbig (ME-11...Old white dudes are scared by minorities and turned on by blondes so much that the right even started a news channel that’s always doing one or the another - Or to put it another way, Republicans require dog-whistling to win.
Or to put it another way, Republicans require dog-whistling to win. That’s the finding of research conducted by our guest Anat Shenker-Osorio along with Prof. Ian Haney López with help of Demos Action.

We’ve told you before how focus groups, studies in four states and an online survey have all confirmed something that Shenker-Osorio and Haney López have been arguing for a long time: To beat right wing messaging, you need a message that combines race AND class.

Only by combining the two can you expose how racism is scam—a strategy designed to divide us so Sheldon Adelson can get billions in tax cuts and trillions for a war in Iran for just a few hundred million in campaign donations. But Adelson, like Donald Trump, didn’t invent anything. Richard Nixon pioneered the Southern Strategy which found its passion in fighting to keep Christian schools segregated in the 70s and its mission in denying women control of their bodies.

In their 1991 book, Chain Reaction, Thomas and Mary Edsall explained that “Just as race was used, between 1880 and 1964, by the planter-textile-banking elite of the South to rupture class solidarity at the bottom of the income ladder, and to maintain control of the region’s economic and political systems, race as a national issue over the past twenty-five years has broken the Democratic New Deal ‘bottom-up’ coalition — a coalition dependent on substantial support from all voters, white and black, at or below the median income.”

Demographics won’t save us. By 2040, 70% of Americans will live in 15 states. That means that 30% of Americans will elect 70% of our senators. Figuring out how to deal with the way Republicans have used race as a battering ram isn’t just a trivial fixation for the left—it’s essential if there’s any hope of building sustainable progressive majorities as the conservatives maximize the huge advantages for slaveowners built into the Constitution.

Understanding dog whistling may have helped us avoid Trump, but now that Trump has shown how powerful it can be, we have to confront it strategically for progressives to win. And that’s what Anat Shenker-Osorio does as well as anyone. She’s the founder of ASO Communications and the author of Don't Buy It: The Trouble With Talking Nonsense About the Economy.

The Bad -- WTF Knows???
Jeffrey Toobin at The New Yorker: yes1:02:34Are we reliving 2016 in 2018? (w/ Josh Pugh from For Our Future) and a Manafort update from Marcy Wheeler/@EmptyWheelhttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/09/are-we-reliving-2016-in-2018-w-josh-pugh-from-for-our-future-and-a-manafort-update-from-marcy-wheeler-emptywheel.html
Sun, 16 Sep 2018 13:15:11 +0000http://www.eclectablog.com/?p=68087http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/09/are-we-reliving-2016-in-2018-w-josh-pugh-from-for-our-future-and-a-manafort-update-from-marcy-wheeler-emptywheel.html#respondhttp://www.eclectablog.com/2018/09/are-we-reliving-2016-in-2018-w-josh-pugh-from-for-our-future-and-a-manafort-update-from-marcy-wheeler-emptywheel.html/feed0Marcy Wheeler on Twitter: @EmptyWheel
Marcy Wheeler at EmptyWheel.net: Paul Manafort's $46 Million plea deal
Marcy Wheeler at EmptyWheel.net: Checkmate: The Manafort cooperation is pardon proof
Marcy Wheeler at EmptyWheel.net: The objection that made Mueller's case
Marcy Wheeler at EmptyWheel.net: A comparison of Rick Gates and Paul Manafort's plea deals
This week Democrats lead in many polls expanded to double digits, Paul Manafort’s criminal past finally caught up to him and headlines like “Trump Is Nuts. This Time Really Feels Different” along with stories about Republican fingerpointing about who is to blame for the impending disaster are bubbling up like a rash you’d get from cheating on your nursing wife multiple times without a condom.
No, it’s not September 2016. It just feels that way.
On September 15, 2016, Hillary Clinton had a 71.3% chance of becoming president. On Sept 15, 2018, Dems have a 82.9% chance of taking the House.
The numbers are eerily similar and so is the vibe. Forecasts keep getting better for Democrats, Mueller is closing in promising some vague vindication and meanwhile all the forces that made Trump possible—voter suppression, gerrymandering, big money dominating politics and hacking—haven’t been fixed. If anything, they’re worse. And if you think what Comey did was bad in late September 2016, you better expect something even worse from Republicans—who control all three branches of government—this year.
If you’ve ever listened to this show, you know it isn’t just a possibility that Democrats could win the popular vote by more than 9 percent and not take the House, it actually happened, less than a year ago, in Virginia.
Good polls are like Trump’s tweets — you’re better off ignoring them.
Senator Brian Schatz said: Every time he does something awful, you do something to help Dems win. He tweets, you phone bank. He announces a bad policy, you send money to a democrat. He hurts people, you knock on doors. For the next 55 days we have one way to express our outrage and that is to work to win.
Add good polls to that list. Good polls are the enemy. When you hear them, do what our guest today does and work to elect some one who will check Trump before it’s too late.
There are a number of groups do work outside of the official Democratic Party that complements their work. Many you've heard of but one may not have heard of is For Our Future, a coalition of major labor unions along with Tom Steyer's NextGen that are raising tens of millions of dollars to put staff on the ground in multiple states to do canvassing, run ads, and perhaps most importantly, to listen to voters and tell their stories, let THEM speak about the issues that mean the most to them.
Josh Pugh is the Communications Director for For Our Future Michigan, a group with over 80 paid staffers in our state alone. He's with us this week to tell us what they've learned from 2016 and what they're going to do about it.
Josh Pugh on Twitter: @JPughMI
For Our Future Michigan on Twitter: @ForOurFutureMI
For Our Future Michigan on the web: ForOurFutureMI.org
For Our Future Michigan on Medium: Memo: Feedback Loop Data from 214,000 Doors and Counting in Michigan
Fredreka Schouten at USA TODAY: Labor unions launch $50 million super PAC
The Good-- Bill Schuette, Mike DeWine and Scott Walker are all lying about health—and that’s good news because it shows how popular Obamacare has become since Republicans began their effort to kill it.
Scott Bauer at The Wisconsin News: Scott Walker pledges to protect pre-existing conditions coverage as candidates clash over health care
https://twitter.com/MorningConsult/status/1041019102792478720
Hannah Levintova at Mother Jones: Paul Ryan Says Republicans Will Take Another Run at Obamacare After the Midterms -- But only if they retain control of the House and Senate.
The Bad -- The Trump administration literally acting to make climate change worse,...Marcy Wheeler on Twitter: @EmptyWheel - Marcy Wheeler at EmptyWheel.net: Paul Manafort's $46 Million plea deal Marcy Wheeler at EmptyWheel.net: Checkmate: The Manafort cooperation is pardon proof Marcy Wheeler at EmptyWheel.@EmptyWheel

This week Democrats lead in many polls expanded to double digits, Paul Manafort’s criminal past finally caught up to him and headlines like “Trump Is Nuts. This Time Really Feels Different” along with stories about Republican fingerpointing about who is to blame for the impending disaster are bubbling up like a rash you’d get from cheating on your nursing wife multiple times without a condom.

No, it’s not September 2016. It just feels that way.

On September 15, 2016, Hillary Clinton had a 71.3% chance of becoming president. On Sept 15, 2018, Dems have a 82.9% chance of taking the House.

The numbers are eerily similar and so is the vibe. Forecasts keep getting better for Democrats, Mueller is closing in promising some vague vindication and meanwhile all the forces that made Trump possible—voter suppression, gerrymandering, big money dominating politics and hacking—haven’t been fixed. If anything, they’re worse. And if you think what Comey did was bad in late September 2016, you better expect something even worse from Republicans—who control all three branches of government—this year.

If you’ve ever listened to this show, you know it isn’t just a possibility that Democrats could win the popular vote by more than 9 percent and not take the House, it actually happened, less than a year ago, in Virginia.

Good polls are like Trump’s tweets — you’re better off ignoring them.

Senator Brian Schatz said: Every time he does something awful, you do something to help Dems win. He tweets, you phone bank. He announces a bad policy, you send money to a democrat. He hurts people, you knock on doors. For the next 55 days we have one way to express our outrage and that is to work to win.

Add good polls to that list. Good polls are the enemy. When you hear them, do what our guest today does and work to elect some one who will check Trump before it’s too late.

There are a number of groups do work outside of the official Democratic Party that complements their work. Many you've heard of but one may not have heard of is For Our Future, a coalition of major labor unions along with Tom Steyer's NextGen that are raising tens of millions of dollars to put staff on the ground in multiple states to do canvassing, run ads, and perhaps most importantly, to listen to voters and tell their stories, let THEM speak about the issues that mean the most to them.

Josh Pugh is the Communications Director for For Our Future Michigan, a group with over 80 paid staffers in our state alone. He's with us this week to tell us what they've learned from 2016 and what they're going to do about it.